My Two-Day Trip to Venice, Italy

Early in spring of 2023, I spent two days traveling in Venice, Italy. During my two-day trip, I explored Venice’s canals, cafes, and restaurants.

My trip to Venice factored into longer travels throughout Italy with two of my aunts. Before Venice, we traveled to Rome and Florence (and briefly to Pisa).

Our time in Venice was brief, but Venice’s main island is fairly small. If our trip had been longer, perhaps we would’ve explored other Venetian islands like Murano and Burano. Without visiting these other islands, two days felt like enough to see the main attractions I wanted to see while in Venice, Italy.

In this blog post, I scrapbook my adventures in Venice, Italy.

1. What I did in Venice

When I traveled to Venice, the weather was unfortunately a bit cold and rainy. So that definitely affected what I decided to do in Venice. For one, taking a ride in a gondola didn’t seem quite as fun when I thought about how wet I would get. Regardless of the weather, I still had a very nice time in this city of canals. Here are the things I did in Venice.

Sightseeing in the Piazza di San Marco

One of the most popular tourist attractions in Venice is the Piazza di San Marco (also known as Saint Mark’s Square), a large square that contains beautiful historical and architectural sites like Saint Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace. The square is also home to cafes, restaurants, shops, and even a museum. If you don’t know where to start exploring Venice, the Piazza di San Marco is a great place to get oriented to the city.

Wandering around Venice’s canals

The majority of what I did in Venice was simply wandering around the city, exploring the canals, bridges, and tiny pedestrian streets. Venice has tons of gorgeous nooks with their own unique charm and beauty. Part of the fun for me was finding these places for myself!

If you’re planning on wandering around the canals in Venice, be sure to bring a physical map! Google Maps and other GPS-based electronic maps have difficulty finding users’ exact locations in many areas of Venice, especially where streets get narrow or go under coverings.

Riding a vaporetto (water bus)

Another activity I enjoyed in Venice was riding a vaporetto, a water bus. These boats carry passengers around the island through the biggest canals. While the Venice water busses serve as public transportation and can get quite crowded, they can also be a nice, cheap option to see more of the city by boat. I used the water busses to get around Venice, but on my way to my destination, I made sure to get a spot with views to watch the canal-front buildings pass by.

2. Where I ate and drank in Venice

Venice offers lots of great food. It’s a popular tourist destination, so there are plenty of different cuisines available on the island. If you like seafood, you should definitely give Venetian cuisine a try!

Below, I list my top favorite restaurants and cafes where I ate and drank in Venice.

Osteria Antico Giardinetto

My aunts and I enjoyed an excellent dinner at Osteria Antico Giardinetto, a family-owned restaurant with warm and inviting vibes. It’s a small restaurant, so there weren’t many tables available, but the size of the place made our meal there feel even more cozy.

El Magazen

We ate lunch one day at El Magazen, a Venetian restaurant with canal views and a glass-enclosed kitchen. There, we enjoyed fresh local seafood cooked in the traditional style.

Caffe Florian

The ornately decorated Caffe Florian is the oldest continuously operating coffee shop in Italy. The food and drinks are expensive, but they have some really unique tea, coffee, and hot chocolate variations. And the atmosphere is lovely.

If you don’t want to spend the money on their pricey drinks, I’d recommend at least walking by to peak in the window at the painted walls and red velvet seating. The cafe is conveniently located in the Piazza di San Marco.

3. Where I purchased Venetian souvenirs

There are countless souvenir shops in Venice. Most sell glass good claiming to have been made in Venice, though for the most part I have no clue how to tell whether or not the goods in each shop were truly made on the island.

However, I did stumble into one glass shop where the owner sat in front of a blowtorch making glass art…

I couldn’t find the place on Google Maps, but it was just a couple of doors to the right of Trattoria Al Gazzettino.

After Venice, my travels with my aunts continued. But from there, we left Italy and headed to the Czech Republic to visit Prague!

Table of Contents: